Review: RWBY Volume 1

Those of you familiar with Rooster Teeth’s Red vs. Blue, the increasingly complex and story-driven Halo machinima, may also be familiar with Monty Oum. Brought in during the production of the series in its later and more recent seasons, Oum succeeded in upping the use of original animation in the show and eventually bringing this original work to the point where it was not just supplementing in-game recordings but becoming an integral and fan-favourite aspect of the series. While this marked a break from Rooster Teeth’s reliance on traditional machinima methods, it also signalled a move away from content based on other content for the studio. Thus, RWBY was born. The brainchild of Oum, the first volume of this series began release in mid-July 2013 and quickly became a big hit for both him and Rooster Teeth as the world of Remnant, layered with both fantasy and sci-fi, and the Kingdom of Vale took viewers imaginations by storm.

The most immediately striking aspect of this show is its animation style. Rooster Teeth is small, both in terms of the number of animators it employs and in the amount of resources it is able to put into its projects and this is reflected in the obviously low-budget animation. However, Oum and his team follow the time-honoured animation tradition of turning bugs into features by carefully crafting both the world and the characters. A great example of this is the black silhouettes that populate the world amidst our main characters, which, while borne out of a lack of time resources, are a wonderful compromise between an empty world and ill-coloured background characters. This is an especially clever choice as it provides a nice contrast between the bold and solid colour schemes against the protagonists, making the world feel more dynamic. Naturally, there is some clumsiness, although this is mostly a result of choosing awkward things to animate. Eating, for example, is something that fully professional productions sometimes struggle to portray and attempting to animate it on a low budget just makes things needlessly difficult.

The action scenes, however, are what the show is really about and they are excellent. Red vs. Blue provided an ample testing ground for Oum to practice animating dynamic and fluid fight scenes and that experience is paying off beautifully in this series. There can be no complaints about the animation here as both the environment and the characters play off each other very well, particularly as the unique weaponry that each character possesses clash and complement each other brilliantly. The best part of the action is how it is used to drive plot and character development rather than it just existing for the sake of having action scenes. Character traits are revealed and reflected as they fight, which demonstrates that there is some deft writing going on behind the scenes.

It’s a scythe and a gun. Yes!

The characters themselves, while not yet particularly dimensional, are compelling enough to make their interactions interesting and, more importantly, fun to watch. As each character is dominated by a colour, they also appear to be dominated by an emotion with the action and the larger story providing hints of hidden depths. Ruby Rose’s, ostensibly the main character, dominating emotion appears to be eagerness, which is a nice break from the zeitgeist of sad (but determined) protagonists. One of the most fun aspects of the characters is the weaving of mythic elements into both their personalities and character design. Ruby’s happy-go-lucky nature and her red cloak are a nice nod to red-riding hood and each of the other characters seem to have a similar inspiration, ranging from fairy tales to ancient epics. This particularly befits the theme of the show as Ruby and her friends must face trial and tribulation in their collective desire to become huntsmen and huntresses of the demonic creatures that roam their world.

This series has many strengths, but it also has one glaring weakness, which is its length. Volume one consists of sixteen episodes, ranging from seven to over ten minutes long but it feels like three or five episodes were broken and scattered around the place. This has the unfortunate effect of making some scenes feel far too short and others far too quick and makes the action scenes seem to take up an unreasonably large amount of screen time. The second volume of RWBY began release in July of this year and it’s been said that Oum and his team have put a lot of effort in solving these issues and strengthening the show. Hopefully, this is true and hopefully RWBY continues to gain traction and accolades for being an ambitious and fun web-series.

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About The Author

An avid reader and fan of storytelling no matter the medium.
I'm a big fan of podcasts, both fiction and non-fiction, TV and film and love books. Asking me what is my favourite book will result in me staring blankly at you as I desperately try to make such a hard decision!
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